Paul Achter

Paul Achter, Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Communication Studies, will collaborate on research funded by a grant from the Swedish Central Bank Foundation (Riksbankens). His primary collaborators are Profs. Staffan Ericson and Amanda Lagerkvist at Södertörn University, Sweden. The project, “Chronicle, Catastrophe, Ritual: Television Historiography and Transnational Politics” will look at the growing importance of representations of history on television, and their impact on cultural memory. In addition, the collaborators will look at the growing importance of transnational television in the context of contemporary politics. Their investigations will focus on three temporal modes of television: chronicles (history, documentary, fiction); catastrophes (such as 9-11, Hurricane Katrina); and rituals (organized global media events, such as U.S. presidential elections).